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Summary re: use of inclinometers

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  • Summary re: use of inclinometers

    Hello,

    A number of weeks ago I posted a question regarding the use of
    inclinometers. I have included my original posting and the replies for
    anyone interested. My thanks to those that replied. All responses were
    very helpful and much appreciated. Although inclinometers conceptually seem
    to be an ideal analysis tool, it appears that their use still has some
    limitations in the subject movements allowed.

    Again, thank you for your time.


    Michael


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I am looking into the use of inclinometer transducers to obtain absolute and
    relative angles (shoulder and wrist, respectively) measured in an industrial
    work place setting. The aim of this setup is to remove constraints on
    subject motions and the effect of different work environments (ie. field of
    view limitations, environmental interference, etc.). My search of the
    literature has found few experiments using this type of inclinometer. Also,
    the web and Biomch-L archives have little information regarding this type of
    equipment setup. So far, current considerations are using an inclinometer
    or Penny and Giles goniometer with a MEGA (ME3000P) unit. I have also
    considered the Physiometer apparatus. If anyone knows of a resource, or
    recent work regarding this idea, please inform me on how I can locate it.



    Replies:

    I think that Dai et. al, IEEE Transactions on Rehabilitation engineering,
    4(2):63-72 provides a comparison of a number of types of inclinometers.
    Similarily, depending upon your electronic expertise, a number of new
    methods for segmental tilt are being developed. What sort of system are
    you looking for?, because I am presently developing a system to measure
    segmental tilt? There is a slim chance that we might be able to test the
    methods on your experment.

    I would look forward to hearing from you.

    Richard Williamson

    Department of Biomedical Engineering phone(403)492-0723
    University of Alberta, Edmonton AB (403)471-2262 ext 2688
    T6G 2J5 fax (403)492-8259

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In response to your inquiries about using inclinometers ... I have done
    some work using electronic inclinometers as part of a strategy to measure
    in-vivo joint stiffness. One inclinometer was placed on each of the limb
    segments forming the joint to be tested. The technique worked very well for
    our purposes, but it required that the joint motions be restricted to planes
    perpendicular to the horizon - otherwise measurement errors were introduced.
    If the restriction against having a horizontal component to the motions is
    acceptable, it can work well, otherwise it isn't likely to be a good choice.
    To date I have only an abstract published on that work.

    Pete

    Peter V. Loubert PhD, PT, ATC
    Associate Professor of Physical Therapy
    Central Michigan University
    Mount Pleasant, MI 48859 USA

    Phone: 517-774-2396
    Fax: 517-774-2908
    Email: Peter.V.Loubert@cmich.edu

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    A customer of ours forwarded your mail to us. In Holland we're a
    salespoint for Greenleaf. One of their products is the WristSystem.
    It's a produkt that can be used for recording angles in the wrist. At
    the faculty of human movement sciences it's even been used for
    determining those angles during wheelchair propulsion. Maybe you
    could use it for your studies. Here's the adress of greenleaf:

    Greenleaf Medical Systems
    3145 Porter Drive
    Builiding A, Suite 202
    Palo Alto, California
    USA
    tel:+415-321-6135

    If you're interested in the study with wheelchair propulsion I could
    send it to you. The only thing I would need is your Postadress.

    We ourselves devolop a system that's called the ADL-Monitor. Its a
    small ambullant device that can collect data for 24 ours (for
    example during a working day). Retrospectively the software can
    determine how much the person has been walking, sitting,
    standing, liying, walking stairs or even has been cycling. It hasn't
    got much to do with the shoulder or wrist but you might be
    interested in the devise. We've been using it (for example) to
    determine wich job would be beter for a low back pain patient. It
    concerned a job as a messenger and a job as a maintainance
    mechanic.

    Well I hope I got you interested,

    Good luck with your surch on inclinometer transducers and maybe
    I'll here from you

    greetings,

    Stefaan Visser
    McRoberts BV
    Raamweg 43
    2596 HN
    The Hague
    The Netherlands
    tel 31 (0)70 310 64 62
    FAX 31 (0)70 361 41 03
    website: http://www.mcroberts.nl

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    hi,

    please visit http://idt.net/~aosi

    this site is what you need.

    eli

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    There are some people in Lund Sweden (Gert-Åke Hansson,
    Gert-Ake.Hansson@ymed.lu.se) who have developed a portable inclinometer with
    data logger to measure arm, back and head inclinations. The one problem is
    you cannot measure the postures where the movements are perpendicular to
    gravity. The also have systems for EMG and goniometers.

    There is also a company in Vermont (Microstrain, www.microstrain.com) that
    makes several devices which may be adaptable for your purpose. They have a
    FAS-A Inclinometer Accelerometer Based Flexion Angle System and a 3DM Solid
    State 3-axis Pitch, Roll, & Yaw Sensor for body tracking. The president of
    the company is Steve Arms, and I think they may be able to adapt some of
    their systems for you purpose.

    With respect to goniometry, besides the Penny and Giles (now Biometrics)
    there is a small company in California (Greenleaf Medical, Palo Alto, CA;
    (650) 321-6135) that makes a goniometer attached to a fingerless glove
    (called the WristSystem). There are certain advantages and disadvantages to
    this system.

    Finally, Microstrain probably has the potential to telemeterize most of the
    systems (StrainLink - Multichannel, Digital Strain Transmitter) to reduce
    cabling. I hope this information helps and feel free to contact me if you
    need any more information.

    Best of luck with your application.

    Regards,
    Pete Johnson

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    Peter W. Johnson, Ph.D.
    Phone: (206) 276-7525, Fax: (206) 328-5618
    e-mail: Pete.Johnson@ErgoRsch.com
    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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